We are students in Northwestern's Medill IMC [Integrated Marketing Communications] program in a Direct and Integrated Marketing course that teaches social marketing. As a part of our assignments, we need to better establish our professional personas and begin writing blogs on key topics which concern our future professional industries. You can also follow us on twitter using the hash tag #NUSocialIMC. Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Content Marketing is King

It makes perfect sense.For complex sales, B2B marketers are constantly challenged to find ways
to keep in front of key contacts.Not
only do we as marketers need to stay part of the company’s consideration set
when it comes time to buy our product, we need to frame our solution as one
that will help solve their problems in advance.In some cases, we even need to propose problems they weren’t aware they
needed solutions to.

Said simply, marketers’ job is to “date” to give Sales
the comfort level they need to “pop the question.”And that’s the key for content marketing: BtoB magazine’s report, B2B Content
Marketing: Ready for Prime Time,
cites the top two reasons marketers use content marketing is that it “improves
engagement with audiences” and “makes brand a trusted source.”

While it can be challenging
to keep up with content once you discover how valuable content
marketing can be, it’s easy to start.Just write a short article that helps your target market in some way. But don’t try to sell your product – that
comes later.

Articles are the most used content marketing vehicle,
and 79% of marketers use articles for content marketing, according to B2B
Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends by
the Content Marketing Institute.Articles
are a good way to get your feet wet with content marketing without having to
start a blog, put together a longer-format white paper or host a live
webinar.And if your article is truly
relevant to your target audience, your article could “go viral” or get it
published by a trade magazine or association.

Challenged for topics?Dig deep and think about what your clients’ needs – either to complete
their day-to-day tasks or how their company as a whole can benefit.Or, get someone in your company to help.Your product is designed to solve a company’s
problem – no doubt there’s a subject matter expert nearby that understands the
market and can give valuable insight and help you to get started.Bottom line is, make sure you give your
audience something – advice, information, resources – that they want and can
use.

Now get out there and create some content.Content marketing is the hottest B2B tactic
out there today.

Ian Eccleston is a marketing director at a major financial
services company. Ian has 14 years of experience marketing for the B2B
complex sale, and is a student at Northwestern's Integrated Marketing Communications
masters program.